Fifa president strikes a discordant note at World Cup draw

Usually when a minute’s silence is abandoned at football events it is because of disrespectful fans. But yesterday at the World Cup finals draw in Brazil it was Fifa president Sepp Blatter who interrupted one he himself called in memory of Nelson Mandela after less than ten seconds.

“Let’s celebrate humanity, celebrate Nelson Mandela and most of all celebrate football. Applaud please!,” he urged the 1,300 dignitaries at the event who had been mutedly paying their respects. His call was followed by a few seconds of polite applause before Fifa’s draw show quickly moved on.

Global television schedules notwithstanding, it was a discordant note struck by Sepp Blatter at a moment of worldwide mourning. But then, he is the man accused by the Mandela family of putting the former South African president “under extreme pressure” to attend the final of the 2010 World Cup, despite being in mourning for the death of his great-granddaughter.

Yesterday’s reminder of Mr Blatter’s insensitivity follows news that football’s governing body is being investigated by a Brazilian public prosecutor for possible racism in its choice of presenters for yesterday’s draw.

The show was expertly handled by Fernanda Lima and her husband Rodrigo Hilbert, a very white couple of Brazilian models from a country where half the population is either black or of African descent. The prosecutor says he is looking into claims that Fifa hired them after vetoing two Afro-Brazilian actors, a charge Fifa denies.

Perhaps aware that such problems are a manifestation of the fact his organisation has become a target in Brazil for the millions unhappy with its high-handedness and the exorbitant spending on preparations for next year's tournament, Mr Blatter made a none-to-subtle appeal for no repeat of the protests that overshadowed last year's Confederations Cup in the country.

Discomfort
"Please come together, join everybody because it is for you," he said, directly appealing to Brazilians. Standing beside Mr Blatter on the stage was Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, who since taking over ultimate responsibility for delivering the World Cup with her election in 2010 has never been fully able to mask her discomfort in the presence of the male characters who run the world's favourite game.

She confined herself to promising “The Cup of Cups. A Cup nobody will forget” pointing out that for the first time the tournament would include all previous champions and teams from all five continents.

The draw show – a televised event that cost millions of euro, all to divide 32 teams in eight groups – represented much that many Brazilians find objectionable about Fifa’s presence in their country.

It was staged in a luxury resort that more closely resembles a country club in the US than the Brazil found outside its heavily-policed entrance. Inside, the bland corporate luxury in which Fifa delegates and Brazilian officials met was a world away from the exuberant and at times dangerous chaos that is the city of Salvador, 90 kilometres down the coast.

The show did contain some flashes of the real Brazil. There was a thunderous closing presentation by Salvador’s world-famous percussion group Olodum. But largely it was a kitschy, musak version of the country interspersed with the canned bonhomie that is the lingua franca of all Fifa events.

Among those present was the most famous Brazilian of them all, former player Pelé. Known in Brazil as a notorious “pé-frio” – a bringer of bad luck – Pelé turned down the invitation to help with the actual drawing of teams “least the draw was not favourable to Brazil”.

Instead he confined himself to expressing confidence that his country would reach its first final in 12 years, a prediction that will leave plenty of Brazilian fans nervous, given his track record of dodgy World Cup picks.

Wanted to avoid
A poll beforehand by the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper showed the three teams Brazilian fans most wanted to avoid were France, which eliminated them in the quarter-finals of 2006 and 1986; the Netherlands which halted them in the quarters last time; and Italy whose defeat of their much-loved team in 1982 still eats away at the country's footballing soul. Instead they got Croatia, Cameroon and Mexico, a team they have struggled against in the past but beat 2-0 in last year's Confederations Cup.

In the media’s mixed zone afterwards the biggest scrum was inevitably around Felipe ‘Big Phil’ Scolari, Brazil’s coach. He seemed reasonably pleased with his lot. Italy’s immaculately turned out manager, Cesare Prandelli, instead was left contemplating what he inevitably labelled the group of death which sees his team face Uruguay, Costa Rica and an opener against England in the Amazon city of Manaus.

England’s manager Roy Hodgson had specifically singled out Manaus as the venue he wanted to avoid, because of its near four-hour flight time from his team’s base in Rio de Janeiro and the tropical humidity.

“One advantage is we are playing another European team there and not one accustomed [to the heat],” he said afterwards, looking for positives after a draw which left English FA chairman Greg Dyke making a throat-cutting gesture in the draw hall.

Speaking the fluent Italian he picked up during his time managing in Italy, Hodgson told Italian television he was looking forward to renewing old acquaintances, recalling that he had worked with Andrea Pirlo at the start of the Italian midfield maestro’s career. But he disagreed with Prandelli that their sides were in the group of death.

What everyone agreed on was that France had had the best luck of all the teams at the draw. Due to be placed in the weakest of the four pots, which would have made it more likely it would end up in any group of death, its federation lobbied hard all week to change the draw rules so it could instead be placed in with the other unseeded European teams. And from there it ended up in a group with Switerland, Ecuador and Honduras. Perhaps only Argentina has an easier first round.

“Conspiracy,” muttered the Italian journalists waiting for Prandelli.

“England’s going home,” sang a smiling Scottish reporter as Fleet Street’s finest were left discussing the Rumble in the Jungle.